Richter 858

Artist: Bill Frisell
Label: Songlines
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 774355155127
EAN: 0774355155127
ASIN: B00077CYL4

Release Date: 2005-02-08

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Listmania:

Best Jazz, etc. of 2005 (#1=best, #2=2nd best, on down)

Tracks:

858-1
858-2
858-3
858-4
858-5
858-6
858-7
858-8

Similar Items:

East/West
I Have the Room Above Her
The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers
Unspeakable
Petra Haden & Bill Frisell

Customer Reviews:

electronic jazz.......2007-01-17

i bought this cd about a year ago for the birthday of a friend who is a fan of richter. when i listened to it, not having a cd-rom set up then, i looked at the photos of richter's painting while frisell's composition played, and i imagined the music corresponding to the paintings, much in way i have with other artist-musician collaborations, disney's the socerer's apprentice and jackson pollock painting to jazz. frisell's accomplishment was sufficiently pleasing for me to put my own purchase on the backburner.

this week i bought richter 858 and put the cd immediately on my player and continued doing things around the house. what i didn't hear during my previous listening: frisell's cd reminds me of of miles davis' bitches brew and later cds of miles work, aura and siesta, with just a touch of frisell's rock.a.billy hokey music, there, i suppose, as frisell's signature.

frisell's cd's have never topped my list of jazz guitarists. however, this one is worth consideration. definitely an excellent addition to electronic jazz.

Herr Richter meets Sounds.......2005-08-15

If you know the many faces of the German painter, Gerhard Richter, you need to be advised that this music focuses on one of those faces.
The sounds are more discomfitting than are RIchter's paintings, it is that RIchter is seen through the ears of Frisell. The sounds are about pain. A pain that flows through the past 60 years of European/USA history. Listen to this, look at the images that affect Frisell's sounds.

definitely not The Intercontinentals.......2005-06-07

Most interesting and adventurous work Frisell's released in almost a decade. Dissonant and abstract. Parts resemble Bartok's string quartet writing. One for those of us who have grown quite bored with the pentatonic blues licks and the static vamps.

Thanks Songlines for putting this out, and for doing such a comprehensive job in presenting the project.

Let a thousand quartets bloom!.......2005-02-13

In recent years, I have read some reviews that chastised Bill Frisell for making music that is a little too accessible. Any fears that we might have that he will engage in that kind of nonsense on this CD are put gloriously to rest during the first two minutes of play.
The opening is two minutes of electronic distortion, skittering extended techniques on string instruments and oddball humor. Delightful. Out of that emerges a strumming guitar followed by Ivesian melodies by the string section.
I recently remarked in a review of a Dresser-Uitti CD that I felt that creative improvised music was experiencing a string instrument renaissance. Part of that renaissance is a renewal of interest in the string trio/quartet as a medium for improvised music. Early efforts in that renaissance were made by Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake (of course- that particular quartet of individuals started the music off in so many directions). In the last decade, Tristan Honsinger and Ig Henneman have made fascinating contributions to the quartet form while the Arcado String Trio and the Amsterdam String Trio have explored a nearby sonic world.
The delight of this particular CD is the conceit of using Frisell's guitar and electronics in lieu of one of the traditional violins. The other players are Jenny Scheinman on the violin, Eyvind Kang on the viola and Hank Roberts on the cello. The eight pieces are inspired by eight paintings in a series by Gerhard Richter. The CD's booklet has very nice reproductions of the paintings and interviews with both Frisell and producer David Breskin who oversaw the whole project. The interviews tell you much about the creative process that was involved.
I find this to be mostly a very successful piece of music. I was trying to be precise earlier when I mentioned Ives. The last few years of Frisell's career has been defined by an immersion in and a reimagining of Americana. With this CD, he gives American folk sensibilities as much of a tweak as Ives did in many of his pieces. The results are both familiar and oddly disturbing. Part of the reason for the disturbing quality is the way the geography of the sound is spaced. Frisell is in the center and the other three are heard through and around him. Frisell uses plenty of space of course so he does not dominate the sound but the result is that his playing frequently emerges seamlessly out of the playing of one of the others.
My only beef with the music is the electronics. One of the problems I have with electronics in music is that occasionally they almost always remind me of cheap sci-fi movie special effects. I know this is nothing more than my weird quirk but there it is. This occurs for me on the sixth piece. From Ives to Star Trek in a single musical phrase. I am just getting too old for that sort of juxtaposition.
But this is a minor and personal criticism. I enjoy this CD everytime I have put it on. I hear something new every time. And every time I feel a delight in the fact that my beloved string quartet format is being renewed. My thanks to Hank, Jenny, Eyvind and Bill.

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